A new flare up over prescription drug costs is taking place in the U.K. In a letter to the U.K. Health Secretary a coalition of cancer patients, physicians, and advocacy groups has asked the government to override patents on a Roche breast cancer treatment – and they have already lined up an unnamed drug maker to produce a lower-cost version of the medicine, known as Kadcyla, if the government agrees.
The request comes as patient access to the drug has grown more difficult. Last year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a government watchdog that measures cost effectiveness of drugs, recommended that Kadcyla not be covered due to the price. The coalition notes the Roche drug, which is known generically as TDM-1, costs about $155,000, or nearly four times the 2014 per capita income of $40,000 in the U.K.